The many uses of moss

Mosses unique in­su­lat­ing and ab­sorb­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics have meant we’ve re­lied on it in many parts of the world and through­out hu­man his­tory. Moss has been used for drink­ing wa­ter, dec­o­ra­tion, food and shel­ter over the years.

Otzi (the fa­mous over 5,000-year-old pre­served mummy found on the Aus­trian-ital­ian bor­der) was found with large quan­ti­ties of moss stuffed in this clothes, likely for in­su­la­tion, but it could also be used as food pack­ag­ing and even toi­let roll. Dur­ing World War I, Sphag­num mosses were used to dress wounds and stem bleed­ing from in­juries and, if you’re se­verely de­hy­drated, you the­o­ret­i­cally could wring them out and drink the wa­ter from it. To­day, we con­tinue to har­vest moss for fuel and as a soil ad­di­tive, and they con­tinue to play a large role in smok­ing malt to pro­duce Scotch whisky.

Mosses are usu­ally bright green, but there are species that grow in deep greens, turquoises and even black